The Pittsburgh Press (November 4, 1944)
Hillman charged with Communism
New York (UP) –
Republican National Chairman Herbert Brownell Jr. asserted today that CIO Political Action Chairman Sidney Hillman was a founder of an organization that contributed almost two million dollars to Communist causes in America.
Mr. Brownell said in a prepared statement:
Mr. Robert Hannegan, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, spent a good deal of time on the radio Thursday night in an attempt to prove that Mr. Sidney Hillman had no Communist connections. Mr. Hillman himself in a speech to the Washington Press Club challenged the boys to prove that he was a Communist.
Mr. Brownell said that a Democratic Congressional Committee had stated that Mr. Hillman was “mixed up with” the American Fund for Public Service and described the Fund as “a large project to finance Communistic subversive activities in the United States.”
Mr. Brownell charged that Mr. Hillman was a director of the project and that the Fund contributed to the Communist Federal Press and to The Daily Worker among other causes.